15 September 2008
Become a subscriber and save £££
Subscribe to the New Statesman for just £82 and receive a free copy of Roy Hattersley’s In Search of England(Hardcover)
From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
Inside Iran
It is the country the west fears most - and knows least about. In our exclusive reports, Iranian writers describe the extraordinary contradictions of life under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "Loving Government" - and reveal how Iran sees the west. Maziar Bahari, a leading journalist, begins with a drive across downtown Tehran
Features
A lesson from Germany
Across Europe, parties of the left are replacing their leaders in a desperate attempt to regain lost ground. Denis MacShane on what Labour should learn
Innocent prisoners
Only Asylum-seekers' children can be locked up without committing a crime. Gillian Slovo visited two families at Yarl's Wood. What she heard made her feel "numb"
“We are trying to find alternatives”
The immigration minister defends detention for children
“Economics is for donkeys”
While oil prices remain high, Iran can afford its contempt for economic orthodoxy
Living with a revolution
Iranian photographers capture the sharp disparity between public and private life in the Islamic Republic
''The shah's plan was to build bombs''
Akbar Etemad, the shah's chief atomic energy adviser, tells Maziar Bahari about the unlikely birth of Iran's nuclear programme
Friends and enemies
Despite its war of words with the "Great Satan" and the "Zionist entity", the Islamic Republic is building new international ties
Battle of the blogs
Internet campaigners for civil liberties and women's rights pay a high price for their "online crimes"
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
We're still in the dark about Brown's vision
Brown must demonstrate that he is truly prepared to “rethink policy”. It will not guarantee re-election, but that is not the point
The Politics Column
Two diagnoses, one conclusion
The unions and the Liberal Democrats agree on one thing: new Labour is at the end of the road
The Politics Column
There's always another option
Labour supporters don't have to keep playing the "Waiting for Gordon" game argues Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone
A right royal flush No 4044
Set by Ian Birchall. We asked for Buckingham Palace’s reaction to any piece of royal news that the press had the temerity to write about, thus invading their privacy
Culture
The leading man
After more than a decade as Czech president, Václav Havel has returned to writing plays. Has his artistic vision survived the compromises of power?
Facing the music
The Beethoven Festival in Bonn has a history of being misused for political ends. This year, the organisers have confronted its troubled past
Performance
Seen it all before
After 25 years of pop hits, Madonna's shock tactics are just embarrassing Madonna Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Film
Dazed and confused
This stoner comedy is muddled - and not because of the high-grade weed Pineapple Express (15) dir: David Gordon Green
Television
The same old story
This tale of a twin towers fraudster is a fascinating one, but it's been told before Cutting Edge: the 9/11 Faker Channel 4
Books
Too much oil, too few options
Saudi Arabia may seem rigid, autocratic and antiquated, but it is slowly changing. Under King Abdullah there has been some liberalisation and an attempt to build an economy not based on oil. But is this too little, too late?
Drama kings and queens
A Strange Eventful History: the Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families Michael Holroyd Chatto & Windus, 608pp, £25
Doubting Dawkins
Between the Monster and the Saint: Reflections on the Human Condition Richard Holloway Canongate, 240pp, £14.99
Decisions, decisions
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein Yale University Press, 224pp, £18
Ordinary people
As a young woman, the novelist and recent Nobel Prize-winner for literature Doris Lessing wrote occasional articles for the New Statesman. In this piece she describes going in search of what D H Lawrence called “ordinary people” during a holiday in Paris, perhaps her favourite city after London. In a few waspish sentences, she conveys vivid and personal impressions of some of those she encountered during her journey and on the Left Bank in 1960
